I put on closed caption and his brother mentioned something about Malcolm not looking (or maybe looking) like a student for Cornell or something like that, indicating that he is not just a lowly bartender. He graduated from Dartmouth and I think his brother took a shot at Cornell. I don't think Malcolm wants everyone to know he's an Ivy League grad.

I saw one of the contestants mentioned somewhere online that there were several auction items edited out of the TV show, so they haven't necessarily stopped offeirng those items, but they've just decided that the public doesn't like seeing them so they don't show them.

If they didn't have any of those, and a person didn't care about buying the advantage, and they can't share money or items, and there are fewer items than there are players, then it would be stupid to ever do anything but immediately bid $500 as soon as an item is offered.

I wonder what they would have done if 2 or more people had bid $500 on the advantage.

First bid wins. Second person to bid $500 would have to outbid the first, and since they were only given $500 and they were told they couldn't pool their money, that basically ensured that a smart player could immediately bid $500 as soon as "advantage" was mentioned and be the automatic winner.

First bid wins. Second person to bid $500 would have to outbid the first, and since they were only given $500 and they were told they couldn't pool their money, that basically ensured that a smart player could immediately bid $500 as soon as "advantage" was mentioned and be the automatic winner.

I'd like to see a better solution. What if 2 people had bid at the same time?

I do like that they don't allow them to pool/give money or share the rewards.